All that's left is the dogwhistle
by digby
Eric Boehlert:
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) couldn’t even wait 24 hours after winning the Republican nomination for the Florida governor’s race before unfurling an insulting attack on his black opponent — an attack that was too far even for Fox News.
“Let’s build off the success we’ve had on Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state,” DeSantis said of his Democratic opponent, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. Gillum is the firstAfrican-American to be nominated for governor in Florida.
DeSantis’ dog whistle was so loud, even Fox felt the need to distance itself from the Trump-backed nominee.
“We do not condone this language and wanted to make our viewers aware that he has since clarified his statement,” Fox News anchor Sandra Smith said later on air.
It’s quite a statement coming from the same outlet that helped fuel DeSantis’ primary campaign by giving him $9 million in free airtime.
Trump and the racist dogwhistle is all they have to run on. Unfortunately, it may be all they need.
DeSantis is going to be doing a lot of this, by the way. He's actually a master at dogwhistling and ginning up the victimization of the poor, downtrodden white Trump voters who just can't ever catch a break. He recently said this during the primary campaign:
“You look at this girl Ocasio-Cortez or whatever she is, I mean, she’s in a totally different universe,” DeSantis said, butchering her name. “It’s basically socialism wrapped in ignorance.”
Ain't he sweet?
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